Jamia Masjid area and adjoining localities in downtown Srinagar today saw clashes between police and dozens of pro-separatist stone-pelting youth who were waving Pakistani flag and carrying posters of terrorists like Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar.
Police burst teargas shells and used batons to chase away the youth who took to streets shortly after the prayers at Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta and started protesting against the recent High Court directive for implementation of beef ban in the state, officials said.
Some of the protestors were carrying flags of Pakistan and various militant groups along with posters of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) founder Masood Azhar who was released in exchange of crew and passengers of the hijacked IA flight in 1999, the officials said.
As police started chasing them away, they indulged in stone-pelting and police fired dozens of teargas shells besides using batons to disperse them, they said.
They said the clashes spread to adjoining areas including Gojwara, Hawal, Rajouri Kadal and Kawdara but there was no report of any casualty in the clashes so far.
Earlier, addressing the Friday congregation at the grand mosque, moderate Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq read out a resolution passed at a meeting of Mutheda-Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU) - an amalgam of various religious organisations, warning of agitation if the government tries to implement the court order on beef in the state.
The resolution was passed at an extraordinary meeting of the MMU at Mirwaiz Manzil at Rajouri Kadal yesterday. Mirwaiz, who heads the MMU, had convened the meeting to discuss the High Court order and chalk out its strategy.
Rejecting the ban on beef as unislamic, the resolution asked the government to come clear, shedding its "mysterious silence" on the issue.
The resolution also demands ban on liquor in the state.
The MMU also called upon the people to organise collective slaughtering of bovine on Eid-Ul-Azha at Eidgahs (where Eid prayers are offered) and other places across the state to fulfill their religious obligations and register protest against the court order.
